Caring for illegal immigrants within the public hospital: The need for an urgent solution

There are a quarter of a million or more foreign laborers that work in Israel. Most of these foreign laborers lack a work permit and medical insurance. Hence, this population has low access to ambulatory medical care, with obvious consequences. When being treated in the public hospital, these illegal immigrants and the doctors caring for them face many problems, both practical and ethical. We review a number of cases illustrating some of these problems, and the danger they present to the work ethics and integrity of the public medical facility.